Musk says SpaceX chose Roadster for high failure risk
Elon Musk says SpaceX launched his old Tesla Roadster to orbit Earth and Mars because the probability of failure was very high and the company did not want to risk anything valuable.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: SPCX ) and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk has revealed the reason behind SpaceX launching his Tesla Roadster to orbit Earth and Mars.
Could Not Risk Something Valuable In a post on X on Monday, Musk quoted a video by the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley handle, which showed a video of Musk outlining that he expected the Tesla Roadster orbit mission to fail.
Read Also: SpaceXAI Taps NVIDIA To Build Faster AI Agents “Very few people know that the reason we launched my old Tesla Roadster to orbit Earth and Mars,” the Tesla CEO said, adding that they chose the vehicle because “the probability of failure was very high and we didn’t want to risk anything valuable.” Very few people know that the reason we launched my old Tesla Roadster to orbit Earth and Mars is that the probability of failure was very high and we didn’t want to risk anything valuable — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2026 In 2018, SpaceX strapped to a Falcon 9 rocket and featured a mannequin in a space suit in the driver’s seat.
The Tesla Roadster was personally owned by Musk.
The roadster also features a copy of author Douglas Adams ‘ novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Roadster Debut Imminent? While the Tesla Roadster has been an elusive topic in the automotive world, with Musk having promised debuts in the past on multiple occasions, the EV giant could be closing in on an unveiling event for its next-generation Roadster.
Tesla was reportedly planning an event this month in Texas, with the Roadster featuring a cold gas thruster system developed with SpaceX that could lift the vehicle into the air briefly.
SpaceX Charts Orbital AI Compute Path On the other hand, SpaceX also touted a partnership with chipmaker NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA ), with Musk saying that the company intends to launch the Vera Rubin chip “optimized” for Space by the fourth quarter of 2027.
The rack would also feature a denser, lighter design.
Musk also said that SpaceX would be targeting 10,000 launches of the company’s Starship rocket annually by the end of the decade amid a space policy boost from the President Donald Trump administration.
The billionaire also predicted that SpaceX may perform the first-ever mid-air catch of an upper-stage rocket with Starship flight 14 in the coming months.
Price Action: SPCX shares were up 0.77% to $136.44 during overnight trading on Monday.
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